Furniture clamping device



J, H. PAGE FURNITURE CLAMPING DEVICE Filed may 2:5, 1957 WH l Aug. 19, 195s United States Patent FURNITURE CLAMPING DEVICE John H. Page, Muskegon, Mich., assignor to The Shaw- Walker Company, Muskegon, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application May 23, 1957, Serial No. 661,136

2 Claims. (Cl. 311-4) This invention relates to clamping devices especially adapted for connecting adjoining pieces of furniture units, such as tables or desks, with their tops in horizontal alignment.

It has heretofore been common practice to connect furniture units together in side-by-side relation, with their adjoining top surfaces in substantially the same horizontal plane, but with certain types of units, especially those having metal bindings along the edges of their top surfaces, it is dillicult to provide a satisfactory form of fastening or clamping means which will insure perfect horizontal alignment of the adjoining top surfaces.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive, and yet eicient form of clamp for connecting furniture tops of the character above described.

The invention may best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a side view of a clamping device made in accordance with the invention, and showing it in position for connecting two adjoining table or desk tops together;

Figure 2 is a section taken on line 2 2 of Figure and Figure 3 is a top view of the spacing plate forming part of the clamping device.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing, the clamping device is indicated generally at 10, and consists essentially of two clamping jaws 11 and 12 and a spacing plate 13. The clamping jaws 11 and 12 have outwardly offset upper end portions 11 and 12' of similar upwardly inclined conformation, adapted to engage the lower flanged edges 14 and 15 of depending side walls 16 and 17, respectively, of adjoining table or desk tops indicated generally at A and B. One of the clamping members 11 has a downwardly extending leg 20, With a laterally extending flange 21 integral therewith, adapted to receive the lower end of a downwardly extending leg 22, formed integrally with the opposite clamping member 12, as seen in Figure 2.

A bolt 23 is threaded through one of the legs of the clamping members, as, for instance, the leg 20, and has a head 24 at its opposite end, adapted to engage the leg 22 of the other clamping member 12, to hold the two clamping members together in position to draw the adjacent side walls 16 and 17 of the tables A and B together. The bolt or screw may be manipulated in any suitable manner, as, for instance, by a hand wrench indicated in phantom at 25 in Figure 2.

It will be understood that the clamping device as above described is especially adapted for use with table or desk tops which are provided with binding strips 18 and 19 suitably fixed along and around the upper margins of said table tops, respectively. Binding strips of this kind are more or less conventional additions to table and desk tops of many types, and usually project slightly beyond the upright side walls of their respective table tops, as, for linstance, the side walls 16 and 17 of the desk or table tops A and B, as shown in the drawing. These binding strips are usually made of metal, their principal object being to protect the upper edges of the table or desk tops, and particularly when said table or desk tops are covered with sheets of plastic or fibre material, as indicated at 30 and 31 in Figure 2.

It will be further understood that the binding strips 18 and 19 may be secured along the upper edges of the table tops in any suitable manner, in the illustrative form shown herein, said strips each having inwardly extending portions 18 and 19', which are inserted between and held by horizontal metal panels 32 and 33, forming part ofthe table top structure. It will be understood, however, that the manner in which the binding strips are xed to the table top is immaterial to the present invention; the essential feature is the arrangement whereby such binding strips are of uniform width and project laterally beyond the upright side walls 16 and 17 of the table tops so as to form downwardly facing shoulders 35 and 36, which are equidistant from the top surfaces of the adjoining .table or desk tops A and B, respectively.

Referring again to the clamping member 10, the spacing plate 13 which forms a part thereof is adapted to be assembled in upright position, with its lower end disposed between the legs 20 and 22 of the clamping members 11l and 12, respectively, and with the bolt 23 passing through a vertically elongated aperture 37 in said plate. The

lower edge of the spacing plate 13 is also slidably sup.

ported on the flange 21, as shown in Figure 2.

The body of the plate 13 is of such thickness that it will be readily accommodated in the narrow space left between the side walls 16 and 17 of the adjoining table tops A and B when the projecting side strips 18 and 19 are moved into direct abutting engagement with each other, as seen in Figure 2.

In the form shown herein, the spacing plate 13 is of substantially less thickness than the space between the side Walls 16 and 17. In such case, in order to insure mutual engagement of the upper edge of said spacing plate with both shoulders 35 and 36 of the binding strips 18 and 19, the upper edge of said spacing plate is widened by forming a plurality of corrugated plate sections 39, 4l), 41 and 42, therealong, arranged to increase the effective thickness of said upper edge. in the form shown herein, these cor-.

rugations are formed by offsetting alternate plate sections 40 and 42 at a slight angle from the normal plane of the plate 13, while the adjacent sections 39 and 41 remain in the normal plane of said plate. lt will be manifest, however, that the entire spacing plate may be made of greater thickness, provided it can be fitted in the space between the side walls 16 and 17.

The use and application of the device will be understood by reference to Figures l and 2, wherein it will be seen that when two adjacent desk and table tops are to be secured together with their upper surfaces in alignment with each other, the clamping device 10 is applied from beneath the desk or table tops, with the spacing plate 13 projecting upwardly between said tops into mutual engagement with the shoulders 35 and 36 of the metal binding strips 18 and 19. The two clamping members 11 and 12 are then drawn together by tightening the bolt 23, so as to engage the ilanged lower edges 14 and 15 of the side members 16 and 17. The vertically slotted aperture 37 in the spacing plate 13 permits suflicient vertical adjustment of the plate so as to insure snug tting engagement of the upper edge of said plate against both shoulders 35 and 36 of the binding strips 18 and19, while the bolt 23 is being tightened. During this tightening operation, the lower end of legs 2l) and 22 of the clamping members will be tilted toward each other and into direct clamping relation with the lower edge of the spac ing plate 13, asseen in Figure 2, so as to secure the entire assembly in substantially rigid relation, thus securing the top surfaces of the desks or tables A and B together in the desired horizontal alignment.

Due to the slidahle tting engagement afforded between the laterally projecting ilangeZl of leg 20 of the clamping member 11 with the lower end of leg 22 of the opposite clamping. member 12, and the arrangement whereby the adjacent lower edge of the spacing plate 13 also rests on the flange 21 between legs 20 and 22, the two clamping members and the spacing plate will be maintained in substantial upright alignment relative to each other during fastening or unfastening of the clamping members by the bolt 23.

Althoughl have shown and described certain embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that my invention is not limited to the specific form shown or described herein, but that various modications thereof can be made without departing from the spirit ofthe invention, as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A clamping device for table tops and the like comprising two opposed generally parallel apertured jaw members, an apertured filler plate between them, a holding bolt loosely penetrating the aperture in one jaw member and the filler plate and threaded in the aperture in the other member, the jaw member in which the bolt is threaded having a perpendicular extension below the bolt adapted to contact the lower edges of the filler plate and '4 the other jaw member, opposed clamping hooks carried by the jaw members above the bolt, the ller plate extending upwardly above the hooks.

2. A clamping device for table tops and the like comprising two opposed generally parallel apertured jaw members, an apertured ller plate between them, a holding bolt loosely penetrating the aperture in one jaw member and the ller plate and threaded in the aperture in the other member, the jaw member in which the bolt is threaded having a perpendicular extension below the bolt adapted to contact the lower edges of the ller plate and the other jaw member, opposed clamping hooks carried by the jaw members above the bolt, the filler plate extending upwardly above the yhooks and corrugated adjacent its upper edge to increase its eiective thickness.

References Cited in the ile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,046,479 McPherson Dec. 10, 1912 1,503,622 Bachmann Aug. 5, 1924 2,101,344 Reynolds Dec. 7, 1937 2,296,782 Fischer et al. Sept. 22, 1942 2,484,283 Gilbert, et al. Oct. 11, 1949 2,565,065 Chakeres Aug. 21, 1950 2,686,699 Davis et al. Aug. 17, 1954 2,686,700 McCarran Aug. 17, 1954 2,702,732 McCarran Feb. 22, 1955 

